{"id":130,"date":"2026-06-28T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:51:00","slug":"peter-kettle-puts-forward-a-radical-alternative-to-the-present-scheme-of-nannying-england-cricketers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Peter Kettle puts forward a radical alternative to the present scheme of nannying England cricketers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter<\/div>

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\t\t\t\tPeter Kettle<\/a> |

I expect there are many of those frequenting the CW site and its Forum who are finding all the reporting on, agonising and carping about night-time curfews \u2013 plus disapproval and restrictions on when and where alcohol is allowed to be consumed \u2013 to be an increasingly irritating and depressing saga. Here is outlined an alternative, radical, approach to ponder.<\/p>\n

The way in which Rob Key has spoken, most recently, to the press about his conversations with Ben Stokes on \u201cthe culture of the England men\u2019s cricket team\u201d and \u201cthe need for change\u201d made me think there has been discussion amounting to many days <\/em>of time. As neither of them are highly educated, my guess is there will have been a couple of chats lasting an hour or so which have got repeated between them endlessly as time has worn on.<\/p>\n

A Backdrop<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In his lauded book, Philosophical Investigations \u2013<\/em> published posthumously in 1953 \u2013 Ludwig Wittgenstein contends that the \u201cbewitchment\u201d (or captivating\/mesmerising nature) of philosophical problems arise from philosophers\u2019 misguided attempts to consider the meaning of words independently of their context, usage, and grammar \u2013 which he labelled language gone on holiday<\/em>. Philosophical problems arise, he argued, when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed.<\/p>\n

Instead, philosophers should \u201cleave the frictionless ice and return to the rough ground of ordinary language in use<\/em>.\u201d Many examples are given of how the first false steps can be avoided, so that philosophical problems are dissolved, rather than solved. \u201cThe clarity we are aiming at is, indeed,\u00a0complete\u00a0clarity. And this means that philosophical problems should\u00a0completely\u00a0disappear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The interpretation in this statement in the context of the new regime for England cricketers, begun in May 2022, should be abundantly clear.<\/p>\n

Portrait of LW\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

About the same time, the distinguished historian J.H. (Jack) Plumb wrote in 1950:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The great problem for philosophers and theologians of the early eighteenth century in England, as it has been ever since science began to dominate intellectual life, was to reconcile reason with religion\u2026The interest in this battle of books (or thought) was not confined to the participants, for religious literature was easily, then as now, the best seller.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Portrait of Jack Plumb<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Two decades later, Tom Stoppard \u2013 in his brilliant multi-faceted stage play Jumpers \u2013<\/em> satirised a moral philosopher\u2019s obsession with the question, Does God Exist?<\/em> Initially performed at the Old Vic Theatre in London in February 1972.<\/p>\n

Portrait of Tom Stoppard<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

In both the latter cases, presaging the tensions and obsessions of this new regime under Brendon McCullum.<\/p>\n

And I feel it highly likely that the playwright and cricket lover Harold Pinter, if still with us today, would be creating a stage play out of it all. This to be enjoyed on two levels, just like most of his plays, such as The Dumb Waiter<\/em> (1957), The Birthday Party<\/em> (1958) and The Caretaker<\/em> (1960). Not a lot of adaptation needed for this one! More a matter of getting the casting right and the timing of the actors\u2019 lines fine-tuned.<\/p>\n

A Radical Alternative Approach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So to my suggested solution to put an end all the jabber surrounding England player curfews and alcohol. In a nutshell, I urge the team management to step onto the rough ground of laissez-faire \u2013 hands-off, allied to player self-determination. To explain:<\/p>\n

If a selector, I would pick England players on recent form, in Tests and County matches, and drop them on lack of it. The state of being in, or out, of form being a subject about which Mike Brearley has written extensively in his well received book titled On Form<\/em> (first published in September 2017). Coupled with this, I would do away \u2013 entirely \u2013 with imposed curfews and restraints\/constraints on drinking alcohol.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One could \u2013 and I think one should \u2013 go further and drop a player from the Test team, even if doing satisfactorily or rather well, if he is considered not to be performing up to his existing ability<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 ie performing substantially below it. (Potential ability being a different matter.)<\/p>\n

The selectors already have to make subjective judgements on a whole variety of matters when picking a Test team. The judgement required in this case is similar in nature to a number of others. Such as: how will he cope when facing express deliveries, rarely encountered so far; will he be able to cope with 100,000 spectators at the MCG, most of whom will be strongly partisan; will his recent series of coaching sessions, to iron out a particular fault, stand up in match play; can he combine effectively with a newcomer at number five in the batting order?<\/p>\n

This\u00a0action in responding to a player\u2019s under-performing relative to his capability would be taken whatever the reason(s) for it are \u2013\u00a0which needn\u2019t, and wouldn\u2019t, be gone into in the public domain. <\/strong>And here\u2019s a key pay-off: no more inquests would arise into who stayed out too late; who drank too much booze where and when; was he really intoxicated when mixing with strangers on his way back to the hotel; were those players being aggressive in a public place; and so forth <\/strong>\u2013 so distracting for all and sundry.<\/p>\n

The White Horse Pub at Parsons Green, south-west London:<\/em>
a venue for Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson on 7th<\/sup> June after the Lord\u2019s Test had ended.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

In this scenario, the recent de facto<\/em> \u201ctenure\u201d system put in place by Brendon McCullum \u2013 analogous to the job security granted to university professors in the name of academic freedom \u2013 should be jettisoned; and the Central Contracts with the ECB (brought in during year 2000) be done away with. Just pay the Test players properly; and, by the way, not in a highly pyramidal form where the elite get disproportionately remunerated.<\/p>\n

All told, this approach to life should, I believe, serve to more strongly incentivise those On The Fringe \u2013 and also those someway Beyond the Fringe \u2013 to strive for a place in the England team. In so doing, it should also help dampen the exodus\u00a0to T20 Leagues around the world.<\/p>\n

If there are fisticuffs and suchlike in pubs and nightclubs,\u00a0the law of the land can take care of that, so long as there\u2019s CCTV in place.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Kettle | 2:55am BST 14 June 2026 I expect there are many of those frequenting the CW site and its Forum who are finding all the reporting on, agonising and carping about night-time curfews \u2013 plus disapproval and restrictions on when and where alcohol is allowed to be consumed \u2013 to be an increasingly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cricketweb.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LW.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[152,157,156,149,155,148,153,150,151,154],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alternative","tag-cricketers","tag-england","tag-kettle","tag-nannying","tag-peter","tag-present","tag-puts","tag-radical","tag-scheme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}